When SpaceX’s Starship exploded in January, raining debris over the Caribbean, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded the
rocket program and ordered an investigation. The move was the latest in
a series of actions taken by the agency against the world’s leading commercial space company.

“Safety drives everything we do at the FAA,” the agency’s chief counsel said in September, after proposing $633,000 in fines for alleged
violations related to two previous launches. “Failure of a company to
comply with the safety requirements will result in consequences.”

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s response was swift and caustic. He accused the
agency of engaging in “lawfare” and threatened to sue it for “regulatory overreach.” “The fundamental problem is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA!” Musk wrote
on X.

Today, Musk is in a unique position to deliver that change.

Last month, when Starship blew up shortly after liftoff, dozens of
airplanes scrambled to avoid falling debris. Residents of the Caribbean
islands of Turks and Caicos reported finding pieces of the craft on
beaches and roads, and the FAA said a car sustained minor damage.

Musk, however, downplayed the explosion as “barely a bump in the road.” Moreover, he seemed to brush off safety concerns, posting a video of the flaming debris field with the caption, “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!”

Moriba Jah, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of
Texas, said that Musk’s response was “recklessness … at a minimum,” given that people were alarmed by the falling rocket debris, which
streaked fire and smoke across the sky before landing in and around the islands.

“That he now gets to provide government oversight over the things that
he is trying to get permission to do is one of the most significant
conflicts of interest I’ve seen in my career, and it’s inexplicable to me,” said Jah, who served on a federal advisory committee for AST.

Starship’s first launch in April 2023, for example, blew a cloud of dust
and grime that stretched miles across Texas. Debris like concrete and
shrapnel rained down on an environmentally sensitive migratory bird
habitat near the company’s Boca Chica launchpad. A report in The New
York Times noted egg yolk staining the ground near a bird’s nest.

In response, Musk wrote on X: “To make up for this heinous crime, I will refrain from having omelette for a week.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/elon-musk-spacex-doge-faa-ast-regulation-spaceflight-trump

Dead birds, corruption and Musk. Por favor, Montoya!

--
“We need to acknowledge he let us down. He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him. We shouldn’t have listened to him, and we can’t let that happen ever again”.
-- Nikki Haley

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